Dangourous Growing up in the 60’s and 70’s
ASPartOfMe
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12 Reasons You Definitely Shouldn’t Be Alive Today If You Grew Up In The ’60s and ’70s
Our parents would hardly ever check we were wearing a seatbelt, we ate whatever we wanted without ever thinking of our health, and from a young age we were given more responsibility than we ever needed.
You know you grew up in the best decades ever if you did these 12 dangerous things as a kid.
Chasing After DDT Trucks On Your Street
Never did that but we did have “skitching” which was riding on the back of a car on snow covered roads
Eating Endless Amount Of Sugar
Most certainly and fatty stuff too. The Wonder Bread pictured in the article was great
Not wearing a Helmet when riding bike
Of course
Being A Latchkey Kid
Nope
Never Wearing A Seatbelt
Yes
Having Fun In Reckless Playgrounds
All of the above and equipment were often rusty. And there was nothing to prevent you from falling even high up on the monkey bars.
Playing With Hazardous Toys
Yes
Taking A Ride In A Ford Pinto
No
Passive Smoking
There were no anti smoking laws people smoked everywhere around us in our house, in restaurants, school bathrooms, on trains. I never smoked yet I got tongue cancer and I wonder if this is the reason why.
Nabbing The Front Seat In The Car
Yes except I walked to school no matter what the weather. Parents drove us to doctors appointments and family outings and clothes shopping, that was it.
Being The Best Babysitter Ever
Most Saturday Nights my parents went out until midnight or so and starting at around age 12 left me home to babysit my younger brother and sister. I do not know about best babysitter ever but they are still alive so I guess I did all right.
Summer In The ’60s and ’70s
We did not hide ourselves in our air conditioned room texting our boss. We went outside the hotter the better. As autistic I did things much more by myself then with friends compared to most kids. “Mellowing out”, bieng lazy was celebrated see the plethora of songs about it from that era. I sat out in the sun for hours a day without any sunburn protection just listining to music or a baseball game on my transister radio.
Another thing my parents never helped me with my homework and that was pretty typical.
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DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
LOL I was an '80s kid, but Grandma always said West Virginia was 30 years behind the times.
I remember all of those things except chasing the DDT truck and riding in a Pinto. We had an old Plymouth from the early '70s, not a Pinto. And we paddled around in the creek, in raw sewage and coal mine runoff, instead of chasing the DDT truck.
I was an only child, but I did get babysat by friends' older siblings (and help friends babysit their younger siblings).
Sure had fun!!
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Fogman
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Chasing After DDT Trucks On Your Street
Nope, but I remember when I wsa 5, (1972) there was a city truck spraying stuff out onto the weeds on the side of the road. They all withered and turned grey a couple of days later. Wanna bet it was Agent Orange or Agent Green?
Eating Endless Amount Of Sugar
I tried to at any rate, FWIW, all soft drinks like Coke and Pepsi were made with real sugar, not the High Fructose Corn syrup crap that they used to sweeten them nowaday
Not wearing a Helmet when riding bike
Always
Being A Latchkey Kid
For a while yes when My dad was at school in Grand Forks, and my Stepmom was working in Bismarck
Never Wearing A Seatbelt
Quite often. My Auntie Bea's car wasn't even equipped with them (1963 Ford Falcon)
Having Fun In Reckless Playgrounds
Yep, and playing arround at constrution sites, and on heavy road rollers and earth moving equipment
Playing With Hazardous Toys
I'm pretty sure that most of the toys that I played with were hazardous from plastic guns that shot stuff out to stuff painted in cool colors that most likely were painted with lead based paint
Taking A Ride In A Ford Pinto
Yeah a bunch of times. Ford's Answer to the arrival of Japanese imports, as well as it's solution to the Gas Crisis and Oil Embargo. FWIW, When my Dad's VW ate a valve in Cyl. 3 in late '72, we got a rental which was not a Pinto, but instead. the Infamous Chevy Vega.
Passive Smoking
Yep, my dad, mom, and stepmom were all smokers, and you could smoke everywhere, from the Grocery stores to anyplace else that bans smoking these days, there was simply no stigma attached to it.
Nabbing The Front Seat In The Car
Not really, I was on only child. Also FWIW, even though many of the cars had bench seats the ones that we had, (VW Bug, Toyota Corolla, and finally Toyota Corona Wagon) had bucket seats.
Being The Best Babysitter Ever
Never.
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When There's No There to get to, I'm so There!
I was a 80's and 90's kid and things my parents did you would get your kids taken away.
Back in 1997, my dad and I went out to Montana together and he took all the seats out of our mini van and put a pillow and sleeping back back there so I could lounge around back there with books. That would have just gotten you a ticket back then. Today, arrest for child endangerment and CPS.
In 1989, my family went to a drive in theater and they took out all the seats in the mini van and put in a playpen, then again no consequences and I am not sure if there were seat belt laws in 1989 where we lived, this was in Washington and Oregon.
We also laid in the back seats or sat in the front.
Kids baby sat their younger siblings too when I was a kid and at times I had to do that. I also remember coming home from school and my parents still being gone. I was 10.
Playgrounds were still cool when I was a kid; long slides, merry go rounds, see saws, big swings. They have phased out in my twenties.
Yes people smoked everywhere too when I was a kid and they had smoking areas. They didn't smoke indoors but hotels and restaurants had smoking areas and smoking rooms. Now public smoking has been banned and people can't smoke within 10 feet to the building.
Spanking was still a thing and now it seems to be 50/50 and even doctors and social workers advise against it. I have also been paddled with a wooden spoon and hit on my bare bottom. For some reason I survived, no psychological issues here and no criminal record nor a history of being a delinquent.
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Daughter: NT, no diagnoses. Possibly OCD. Is very private about herself.
Although I grew up in the UK rather than the USA that pretty much sums up what it was like.
I was also given freedom to do my own thing by myself whenever I wanted even at quite a young age. This usually involved going to the rocky beach below the cliffs that started at the end of the town's promenade. I spent my time poking about in the rockpools and scrambling on the rocks which probably helped a lot with my coordination.
I just had to remember to be home before dark. It was usually well after dark when I got home as I just lost track of time. There was so much interesting stuff to see and do on the beach. Somehow I managed to avoid ever being cut off by the incoming tide or squashed by the many rockfalls. I'm not sure how my parents felt about me always going off alone but they still let me go. I'm really glad that I had that freedom. I think I would have struggled a lot in my childhood without it.
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Fogman
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I was also given freedom to do my own thing by myself whenever I wanted even at quite a young age. This usually involved going to the rocky beach below the cliffs that started at the end of the town's promenade. I spent my time poking about in the rockpools and scrambling on the rocks which probably helped a lot with my coordination.
I just had to remember to be home before dark.
That was another thing, Kids and dogs were essentially free to be themselves in the 1970's. Nowadays dogs are pretty much confined to leashes lest the dog do something doglike off leash, and leave the owner legally liable for the dogs' actions.
Kids these days are generally no longer free to play outside due to the threat that they will be picked up by a child molester or something like that. Kids don't seem to have the freedoms that they once had and are now for the most part curled up in front of some gaming system, or computer inside, at home.
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When There's No There to get to, I'm so There!
Kids these days are generally no longer free to play outside due to the threat that they will be picked up by a child molester or something like that. .
Which is sad since that despite some high profile cases, an awful lot of abuse and molestation seems to take place either in families or where the perpetrator is known to the family and in a position of trust
Kids these days are generally no longer free to play outside due to the threat that they will be picked up by a child molester or something like that. .
Which is sad since that despite some high profile cases, an awful lot of abuse and molestation seems to take place either in families or where the perpetrator is known to the family and in a position of trust
ASPartOfMe
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“Free Range” parenting started to change into “helicopter parenting” in the 1980s with rumors of Halloween Candies being messed with.
Poisoned candy myths
Despite these claims of poisoned candy being eventually proved false, the news media promoted the story continuously throughout the 1980s, with local news stations featuring frequent coverage. During this time cases of poisoning were repeatedly reported based on unsubstantiated claims or before a full investigation could be completed and often never followed up on. This one-sided coverage contributed to the overall panic and caused rival media outlets to issue reports of candy tampering as well. However, Joel Best says that the spread of the myth cannot be blamed solely on the media, and that it must have been transmitted via word of mouth as well.
By 1985, the media had driven the hysteria about candy poisonings to such a point that an ABC News/Washington Post poll that found 60% of parents feared that their children would be injured or killed because of Halloween candy sabotage.
Advice columnists entered the fray during the 1980s and 1990s with both Ask Ann Landers and Dear Abby warning parents of the horrors of candy tampering:
"In recent years, there have been reports of people with twisted minds putting razor blades and poison in taffy apples and Halloween candy. It is no longer safe to let your child eat treats that come from strangers." –Ann Landers in 1995
"Somebody's child will become violently ill or die after eating poisoned candy or an apple containing a razor blade." –Dear Abby in 1983
This collective fear also served as the impetus for the "safe" trick-or-treating offered by many local malls.
Due to their fears, parents and communities restricted trick-or-treating and developed alternative "safe" events.
Columbine, 9/11, and texting sealed the deal
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DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
RetroGamer87
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Back in 1997, my dad and I went out to Montana together and he took all the seats out of our mini van and put a pillow and sleeping back back there so I could lounge around back there with books. That would have just gotten you a ticket back then. Today, arrest for child endangerment and CPS.
In 1989, my family went to a drive in theater and they took out all the seats in the mini van and put in a playpen, then again no consequences and I am not sure if there were seat belt laws in 1989 where we lived, this was in Washington and Oregon.
Yeah, I've noticed. Today's playgrounds wouldn't excite a 3 year old.
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I honestly don't know how I should feel about such things.
Most of today's stricter controls make sense to me. There's only a few things that I really miss.
I miss the idea of children playing outdoors all day in Summer without direct parental supervision, however the reason for this is that few people stay home all day to care for their children. Those carefree children of the past played in streets lined with houses in which housewives were preparing dinner for when their husbands came home (or attending to other housewifely tasks, or just watching soap operas). Those same streets are more or less abandoned today. Nobody is home. We simply aren't going back to the day when most middle-class married women were housewives. Ain't happening.
I used to be a free-range child. I lived in a medium-sized city. Ironically, a city like that may well be safer for a kid than a typical American suburb. Even today, I think you'll find that kids growing up in cities, especially big ones like NYC, have more freedom of movement than suburban kids.
One other thing I miss is when family pets used to spend the day outdoors, going about their business. Even though I was afraid of dogs as a child. And especially cats. Everybody says now that pet cats will bring about the extinction of native bird species, however that didn't seem to be a problem 50 years ago when almost all cats were outdoor cats. Why should it be a problem now?
But riding in a car without a seat belt, sitting in a Greyhound bus or airplane in which at least half the passengers are smoking at a given time, and a whole lot of other things, I can quite happily do without.
RetroGamer87
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I was a latchkey kid from the age of 9.
I have been a passenger in a Pinto.
I drank sugary drinks.
I was too much of a coward to take risks in playgrounds. There was no rubber on the ground until about 1971.
I hardly ever wore a seatbelt as a kid.
I was a "free-range" kid.
Virtually every adult smoked and drank alcohol. Many kids, too.
Never wore a helmet riding my bike. You would have been called a "sissy" if you did. I started seeing them later in the 1970s.
The Halloween rumors about razor blades in candy started in the early 70s.
After about 1975 or so, I hardly ever even saw a Pinto. My teacher had a 1971 Pinto with dungaree seats.
Chasing a DDT truck down the road. No I don't remember that. They sprayed DDT from an aircraft over our neighborhoods. It dropped such a fine white mist. It was like walking out into a fog bank in the middle of the day. All the kids would race outdoors to run and play in the stuff. DDT is probably one of the reasons why I have lived so long.
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RetroGamer87
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